Annick joined BELRIM almost 10 years ago and she joined the board when Belrim was still under the presidency of Pierre Cambier.
She represented Franki Foundations, a piling contractor. Those days, Franki Foundations was not yet acquired by Besix. Annick was head legal and risk management. At the Franki Board she was the only woman but more importantly, the only non-engineer. Her views on risk were quite different from the ideas of her fellow Board members. Her expertise regarding construction insurance and decennial liability were appreciated by the BELRIM board.
In 2008, Annick left Franki to join GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, where she became the risk manager for the vaccine plants worldwide. She kept her board position at BELRIM during the 6 years at GSK. She travelled a lot during those years but she always greatly enjoyed connecting with the Belgian risk community. More women and young risk managers joined the Board, and, in her opinion, the BELRIM Board became a good representation of the risk managers population in Belgium.
As Annick was quite young when she became a risk manager and her experience was limited, the BELRIM network was a real help when she had questions or doubts. She learnt a lot at the exchanges. Later, the BELRIM exchanges also proved to be the ideal setting for benchmarking and an informal chat with peers.
As a Board member, Annick also helped organize exchanges. She emphasises that the BELRIM Board works as a team to help organize many activities and brainstorming sessions. Two exhanges however she will always remember: the one she organized on construction and decennial liability and for her personally the most memorable one is the exchange at GSK on the pandemic flu and its consequences for risk managers.
When asked what was her best souvenir of all, Annick said: “That’s easy! My first Ferma was in Geneva. The Belgian Evening on a boat trip on the Geneva lake. For some reason, We didn’t make it on time to the exit, and we left for a second tour on the lake…. 2 more hours of dancing in the moonlight. Luckily there were no pictures taken.”
Annick left BELRIM and joined Aon 5 months ago, where she has taken up a commercial role as account manager for large clients. She believes that her experience as a risk manager for a small decade, helps her to better understand the needs of clients. She wanted to get out of her comfort zone and be challenged again.
Her final words of advice for the BELRIM members:
“Use the network, connect with each other and free up your agendas to participate at the exchanges!”
and why should one join BELRIM?
A risk manager is an expert in his company. Running his own department or being part of legal or finance, a risk manager has a rather limited audience: there are often no peers to discuss do’ and don’ts, seek advice or share successes. It is also crucial to continuously follow the trends in the industry and learn about new risks and their mitigation. It is also the ideal setting to meet insurers and brokers.
The BELRIM Board thanks Annick for her many years of support and wishes her the very best in her further career.
